tonight on a special edition of "nightline." landfall. sandy, the biggest atlantic storm in a decade slams into the eastern united states, whipping of winds of nearly 100 miles an hour and 30-foot waves and some 60-some million americans in its path. the superstorm 1,000 miles wide leeches the island of manhattan cut off, under water and in the dark. forcing hospitals to evacuate even the smallest patients. in a beachfront community in queens, firefighters watch helplessly as a neighborhood goes up in flames. and two governors declare states of emergency as the megastorm hurtled north and rescuers searches for survivors with tall

ships gone down. >> from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran in main day, new jersey. bill weir in erie, pennsylvania. and cynthia mcfadden in new york city. this is a special edition of "nightline." "the perfect storm." october 29th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden in new york. tonight, a deadly storm unlike any this city has seen before. for the first time since 9/11, all bridges and tunnels leading in and out of manhatt hathattan closed down. the city remains eerily dark and quiet tonight after a massive superstorm left half the city without power and partially under water. the historic storm continues to wreak havoc up and down the atlantic tee board from the carolinas to connecticut, claiming at least 13 lives and kaing blackouts and snow storms across the east coast and

midwest. terry moran and bill weir will be joining us live from cape may, new jersey, and lake erie, pennsylvania. first we turn to our colleague abc's juju chang who spent the day reporting in lower manhattan and comes to us now from the city's flooded streets. juju, what's the latest? >> reporter: i have to tell you new york felt like a city under siege. we literally had to wade through floodwaters down here in lower manhattan in the mandatory evacuation zone. this storm set the dubious distinction of setting a record storm surge and we watched at its height as the water barrelled over the storm wall and went rushing down the streets. new york city subway systems have felt the wrath of hurricane sandy as well, brought down trees, ripped out power, inundated tunnels and subway tracks. in the 108-year history of the new york subway station workers have never faced as big a

challenge. throughout the evening, we're standing in the hardest-hit part of lower manhattan, the historic canyons of lower manhattan. to the right of me is the world trade center, just earlier the 9/11 memorial began flooding. several blocks behind me is the new york stock exchange. the heart of this country's financial district. all evening we were hearing dramatic stories of dramatic rescues in a city that is largely without power and plunged in darkness. tonight, a desperate race against the clock. an emergency evacuation at new york university's medical center. our new york station wabc's kimberly richardson is on the scene watching a pediatric nurse shepherd a baby to safety. oh my goodness, this is an infant. it is an infant. >> reporter: some 200 patients, about 45 of them in critical condition, being relocated late tonight to other hospitals. with the power out across lower

manhattan, the hospital's backup generators have failed in the rising floodwaters. and other hospitals may be threatened as well. all night, storm surges of up to 13 feet have been battering the southern tip of this island. streets and avenues turning to rivers as the water surrounding manhattan poured over sea walls in the full moon high tide. we were with new york governor andrew cuomo as he watched the waters surge at the mouth of one tunnel. what is your biggest concern at this hour? >> where it stops, when it stops, and what damage it's doing in the meantime. >> reporter: water flooded the newly unveiled ground zero memorial, much of it underground. the facade of a four-story residential building came toppling down in the high winds, exposing the apartments inside. miraculously leaving no one injured. earlier this evening the city closed all tunnels and bridges out of the city. with hurricane-force winds

coming ashore, new york officials were so concerned about 90-mile-an-hour gusts of winds touching down that they've shut down the historic brooklyn bridge, as well as just about every bridge and tunnel coming into manhattan. remember, we're on an island so we are essentially cut off as the storm hits. across the river the waterfront had been flooding since morning in brooklyn and in jersey city. the subways and buses normally moving 7 million people a day stopped running last night. people encouraged to stay in place. now those subways are reportedly submerged in four feet of water. we were with the chairman of the mta with one of the tidal surges they've been warning about happened. >> what surprises me is the power of the water. it's just unbelievably flowing as it goes down. i'm a new yorker, i've never seen anything particularly like this going into a tunnel. >> reporter: power was cut into the brooklyn battery tunnel. >> we're with abc news, we need to get to the truck on the other side. >> reporter: our satellite truck became stranded and we had to make our way through the floodwaters any way we could. >> the only way we're going to make it is if we hang on to the

fence. it's flooded here. >> reporter: offshore, lady liberty's torch has been extinguished as power outages spread across town, a small explosion hitting a con edison plant. there are 375,000 people who live in the evacuation zones in low-lying areas prone to flooding. deep in the heart of the evacuation zone, we ran across stubborn holdouts who decided to ride out the storm. the hurricane was on tv, the beer on tap. >> happy hurricane! >> reporter: three friends, all zon-a residents, were hunkering down. what's the plan? >> we're on the third floor. we have plenty of provisions. >> reporter: what provisions? >> we have some -- what do we have? we have tuna, we have peanut butter and jelly, we have some whole wheat bread. >> apple jacks. >> reporter: it's a once in a lifetime storm. >> well, you know, it's like as much as this is bad for a lot of

people, it's kind of like exhilarating for people. >> reporter: a few blocks away in the shadow of the freedom towers, still under construction, matthew and allison bradshaw plan to ride out the storm with their 18-month-old son. what played into your decision to stay here instead of evacuating? because you're in a mandatory evacuation site. >> yes, we are. and we are taking this seriously. but we're also prepared. and i think that's half the battle is being prepared. >> reporter: they've stockpiled the fridge and filled the tub with water. they've been through tough times in the lower manhattan before. >> reporter: you guys have lived through quite a bit in lower manhattan. >> blackouts, flood of the building, living through the reconstruction after 9/11. it's been a tough road. >> reporter: right out their window, the footprints where the world trade center once stood and the construction site for the freedom tower, now flooded. what's your biggest fear as the storm is hanging over us?

>> my biggest fear is that we have two very large cranes right on the north side of our building. if something were to come unhinged, that the crane would come down and collapse into the building. >> reporter: matthew was right to be concerned. in midtown this afternoon, high above a luxury building, a construction crane toppled over in the high winds, threatening pedestrians below. >> i heard that it had come down. so i thought i'd come check it out. >> reporter: a nearby high-end hotel evacuated their guests. >> watch your back, folks. get on the sidewalk. >> reporter: that crane dangles in the fierce winds and the bradshaws report they too have lost power. they say it will be a long couple of days. >> we are just about literally minutes from high tide. this is not good. this is not good. >> reporter: understatement. >> yeah. >> reporter: things are not looking good for the bradshaws either. not only did they lose power, but during the tidal surge they got about four feet of water in their lobby. now, we walk over to that area

just a short few blocks from here, about 1:00 eastern time, and the water has receded from their lobby are. we talked to the maintenance guys and they said their batement is flooded, they have no generator, they have no idea how long it will take them to get systems like elevators back online. it's going to be days if not weeks for things to return to normal back here. >> oh, juju, thank you so much for that report. stay safe and go home. the seaside town of breezy point is in flames. more than 100 firefighters are struggling to put out a fire that has engulfed at least ten homes. the floodwaters keeping them from getting close enough to extinguish the fire. firefighters say at this point there are no injuries. they hope that means these folks took the storm seriously and evacuated before sandy hit. abc news producer jim debrill is in breezy point and joins us live on the phone. jim, tell me what's going on out there. >> you know, i'm in a community

of 4,200 homes out here. this is a community that lost the most people during 9/11, firefighters and cops, during 9/11. this community was hit horribly tonight. around 6:30, they lost power. then the water came rushing in. and many here expected there would be flooding, there would be loss of power. but then this fire just erupted on one of the walks out here. and went from walk to walk to walk. we were in a home and the fire was literally right across from us. and as this fire just spread, we evacuated not once, we waded our way to another home, and then realized that the parking lot we were next to, the cars literally started to blow up in that parking lot. so we had to leave there, we went to another home. again, the fire continued to spread. my understanding, it has spread across about 12 blocks of breezy point. an area that they call the wedge. it's a place i'm very familiar with. i spent my summers down here.

and it's just destroyed tonight. right now, we're in a church. there's about 40 of us that are, as we speak, about to be evacuated and taken out of here on a bus. there is no option to stay. there are tons of firefighters here that are trying to put the the blaze out. at this hour, the fire's still going. we thought we were just going to come here and see people that didn't want to leave. now they're being forced to leave, not by water, not by flood, not by sandy, but by fire. and tonight what we've seen here is absolutely devastating. and the people here are amazing people. they're people with a lot of pride to them and they're keeping their pride tonight. the people i've spoken to tonight said they're going to rebuild and somehow that they'll get through this. >> our thanks to you, jim, for that report. a chilling look at what is going on tonight in and around manhattan. just ahead, my co-anchor terry moran joins us from the

shoreline that bore the brunt of the storm's landfall tonight. in cape may, new jersey, when we come back. this special edition of "nightline," "the perfect storm," continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> a storm that many there are

calling the worst they have ever seen, terry, tell us what's happening in cape may tonight. is it pretty rough?

this special edition of "nightline," "the perfect storm," continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> we return now to our special storm coverage as we're joined by my co-anchor terry moran who's been reporting all night from the hard-hit new jersey shoreline where homes were flooded and entire piers were swept away in a storm that many

there are calling the worst they have ever seen. terry, tell us what's happening in cape may tonight. >> reporter: well, it's a very different kind of jersey shore tonight, cynthia. it's seven hours almost since landfall. we saw these booming, almost hurricane-force winds coming off the atlantic ocean behind us. the moonlight is starting to seep through the cracks. but there are 60 million people who were in the path of this storm. and just about every one of us was impacted one way or another. the wind, the rain, the storm surge. now the cold, especially for those without power. and for many, the fear during the course of this day. here's how it all unfolded. sandy roared ashore this evening, lashing out with fearsome winds and a monstrous storm surge at communities up and down the coast for hundreds of miles. in brigatine beach, new jersey, gigantic waves engulfed the

coastline. >> oh my god, it's washing everything away! >> reporter: along atlantic city's famed boardwalk, 15-foot waves crashed over the sea wall. nearby residential streets were turned into rivers. in hatteras, north carolina, the enormous surf tore up roads and beaches. all along the coast, 70-mile-per-hour winds battered communities as millions of americans hunkered down under the fury of this storm. the drama began early this morning as the storm headed toward the eastern seaboard in the midst of that maelstrom, an incredible helicopter rescue at sea. the coast guard pulled 14 people from the royaling waters after the ship "hms bounty," which starred in hollywood movies for decades, including "pirates of the caribbean" films, foundered and sunk to the bottom of the sea. one crew member dead, another missing. in cape may, america's oldest

seaside resort, sandy battered the grand hopes, devour the broad beaches, and flooded the streets, practically turning the quap into the island. sandy's real destructive force is north of here in her haymaker of a right hook, the deadly northeast quadrant of the storm in the most densely populated area of the country. >> millions of people are going to be affected. >> reporter: by noontime in washington, d.c., president obama breaking off from the campaign took up the mantle of office once again to urge americans to heed all the ominous warnings. >> the most important message that i have for the public right now is, please listen to what your state and local officials are saying. when they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. do not delay. don't pause, don't question the instructions that are being given. >> reporter: by afternoon, sandy spawned snow storms in west virginia and flood warnings as far west as chicago. and tonight, as we see the

massive impact all along the east coast, the sheer scale of this storm is staggering. almost 4 million people without power. more than 1.5 million evacuated. 14,000 flight cancelations across the country. and from space tonight, the gigantic storm seems to have earned its halloween monitor, frankenstorm. from land tonight, the moon peeked through the clouds at the eye of the storm. and as i say, we can now start seeing some of the moonlight here tonight. there is a brutal and dangerous magnificence in a storm like this. it just came roaring through here and is now just tearing up the midwest. tomorrow and in the days ahead, here and of course in new york, the reckoning. >> our thanks to you, terry. stay safe. just 48 miles up the shoreline from terry, ginger zee of our extreme weather team is

on the ground in atlantic city where much of the city is under water. part of that famous board juan has been blown away. those iconic neon lights have gone totally dark.